Measuring temps seems to be an inexact science. I'm using a remote reading infrared thermometer (a decent one, don't even bother with one that's less than $75 or so). The temps with the fire going incorporate a certain amount of reflected heat, so they often don't seem to tell what the actual dome is doing .
I saw about 400 at the peak today, with about 200 at the second row up (my second firing) and almost 500 on the floor where the fire was. A few hours after the fire's out it's down to about 200 at the top, but still pretty hot on the floor (as Mark mentioned, that seems a relevant place to measure).
Ran the fire for a few hours. Tomorrow I'll try a longer burn and look for around 500 at the top.

Yo, sorry about that hi-res photo, I'm still figuring this camera out. I'll post a bunch to the photo gallery soon.
Snowing like crazy here, I'm about 20 minutes south of Bethlehem, PA. Supposed to have maybe a foot tonite.

Saw 800+ at the dome yesterday, though that was transient. Settled in at about 650 for about a half hour during the peak of the burn. Floor similar, though that went down quickly once the coals were moved away. Fired in the morning, done about 1 pm, by late evening it was still showing about 250 through the entire oven. Probably have to add an hour or so to the peak of the 3 hour burn I've been running to heat it enough to be really useful. NO cracks anywhere that I can see; I attribute this to the long, slow cure with a heater/fan for several weeks before first firing. My wife is firing it today; she wants to do a roast. Still got cosmetics to do, but I think this thing is up and running.
Getting mixed messages on softwood vs hardwood. I've been running about 1/3 soft, rest hardwood. Any ideas?

Hey Spazio...
Congrats... I try to burn softwoods and cutoffs, scraps etc for my warmup.. I do some building and we throw the scraps in the back of my truck,, easy to light,, but they burn quick,, When I am getting serious with the fire I switch to my well dried hardwood pile,, I save my fruitwoods for cooking dirty steak on the coals,,
Cheers
Mark

The last 2, all wood, burns have been to high temps. No smoke where itís not supposed to be and no observed cracks, yet. Iím happy that the propane, LP Gas, method of long sustained, temperature controlled burns, cured things just fine.

Thanks for all of those who are contributing to, and those who have contributed to, the curing forum for your help! For those coming after, Iíll do my best to lend a hand where I can.

Chris

Chris,
Well done mate everything sounds perfect. I'm soon going to start the curing process. I'd like to know how big is the void opening on your chimney?

Dean, the opening to the chimney starts at full entry width by eight inches. The width then narrows, going up, to the eight inch width. I have more info, on the chimney, in the pompeii build area, the cure info is here. As an ongoing update the oven is a constant delight. It heats in 90 minutes and holds cookable heat for more than 3 days. At 72 hours it's 250F after starting with a good soaking pizza burn. The heat retention really relates to how we'll the insulation and door hold the heat in.

Our oven, having been (in my opinion, not my wife's) cured somewhat too quickly, is now showing some cracks in the mortar. They are all vertical hairline cracks, but they do span several courses of bricks. Post curing, (and after the cracks first showed up) we've done about a half dozen good hard firings where dome temps with the fire stoked were briefly around 1000, settling back to around 800 when the fire was banked. It doesn't seem to be leaking smoke, and the integrity of the dome still seems good, but it still makes me cringe when I look at them. We were trying to get ready for a pre-ordained pizza party, but I still would have liked to do at least a dozen or more curing fires rather than the eight or less we did.
Any comment on continued use? High temp sealers? Just use the oven and keep an eye on it? Take it apart this summer and redo the thing ?
There was comment about the Heatstop 50 having a tendency to separate from the bricks, (which is what it seems has happened) more than a "home made" mortar. I do think a slower cure would have helped prevent the cracks we have.

If it isn't smoking, I'd just use it.. Mabey at some point fill a few of them, but by the time you have dome covered you'll be too busy enjoying the food to care nearly as much as you do now. With time comes perspective.

I started cure prccess by making a paper fire then did not know how much paper to burn.Today i tried lighting a piece of oak and ended up smoking out my job.The wood never really lit and I just continued to add paper.I cannot believe that these can be in the kitchen in the house with all the smoke.I have a 36 inch pompelli hand made with a 6 inch pipe 3 ft piece above the opening.my thermometer that i bought from forno bravo has not gotten above 100 degrees.I hope the thermometer is installed right as i never can find directions for that.I have it about halfway up dome on the side.Any suggestions?
thanks

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